Source: Theo Wargo / Getty
Kevin Durant’s not going anywhere.
The 2-time NBA Champ cleared up rumors from earlier this week when Marc Stein’s newsletter mentioned that he’d rather retire than be a starter for the Brooklyn Nets when the 2022-23 season begins.
“During summer league in Las Vegas, one of the most well-connected team executives I speak to regularly insisted to me that, based on what he was hearing, Kevin Durant was more apt to retire than play again for the Brooklyn Nets,” Stein wrote. “This was in early July.”
Well, Durant hopped on social media to let NBA fans know how egregious the idea of him hanging up his Nikes right now is.
“I know most people will believe unnamed sources over me, but if it’s anyone out there that’ll listen, I don’t plan on retiring anytime soon. Shit is comical at this point,” the disgruntled superstar wrote on Twitter.
For any NBA fan, to think that KD –who’s arguably still in his prime– would retire is an odd stance and one that Stein didn’t think was true because he believes Durant loves the sport too much.
“I told the tipster that I simply couldn’t believe that,” Stein continued. “I was a loyal subscriber to the theory that Durant The Hooper loves playing basketball way too much to adopt such a stance.”
Now that it’s clear that Durant still wants to play, it’s not clear where he’ll be playing when the season kicks off in about two months. Earlier this month, he reportedly voiced concerns about the team’s direction to Nets owner Joe Tsai and reiterated that he wanted a trade for the second time.
While any team would love to have Durant, he comes with four years, $198 million left on his contract, and many teams around the league aren’t willing to give up their core for him.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has even weighed in, noting that he isn’t happy when players aren’t satisfied with their current franchise.
“This needs to be a two-way street,” Silver said last month. “Teams provide enormous security and guarantees to players, and the expectation is, in return, they will meet their end of the bargain. I’m realistic that there’s always conversations that are going to go on behind closed doors between players and their representatives and the teams. But we don’t like to see players requesting trades, and we don’t like to see it playing out the way it is.”
